AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Western Star, Issue 161, 7 October 1876, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Fine rains have fallen in the country in South Australia. Ellen Francis has been convicted for the murder of the man Davis at Emerald Hill, and sentenced to death.

A considerable sum has been received at Sydney in aid of tho Dandenong fund. A girl named Sarah Reynolds died at Wirrabra, South Australia, from the effects of burning.

Myriads of grasshoppers are reported as appearing at Deniliquin.

Several nuggets weighing from loz to

lOoz have been found at Sandy Creek. A woman sixty years old, named Tape, was burnt to death at Sydney while smoking in her bed. At Adelaide a verdict of manslaughter has been returned against John Harmann,charged with murdering his mother-in-law.

The sentence of death passed on the aboriginal GHllie Jack for rape has been commuted to fiffeen years imprisonment. Mrs Scott-Siddons, the actress, competes iu rifle matches, and is a crack shot with the Martini Henri rifle.

A special correspondent of the Register, who is travelling through the areas in South Australia, speaks more hopefully of the crops, and estimates an average yield of from eight to ten bushels an acre. The Elmsgrove, from Sydney to Adelaide has been wrecked off the coast. Out of a crew of ten there is only one survivor. The Governor has presented a gold watch to each of the boat’s crew of the Dandenong, for their bravery in saving lives at tho wreck.

Mr Thomas Campbell, at one time harbour-master at Williamstown, and who has latterly followed the avocation of farming, committed suicide in the Kew Lunatic Asylum.

At Melbourne, Emma Forrester, a monthly nurse has been acquitted on a charge of having procured abortion in the case of a barmaid named Derry, who died.

In. the Melbourne divorce case, Dr Fisher v. Mrs Fisher and Egan, the jury found tho respondent guilty of adultery with Egan, the groom, the co-respondent. They also found the petitioner not guilty, as alleged in the defence. The decision in the inquiry into the loss of the Dandenong is that tho loss of tho vessel was caused by the breaking of the shaft, the accident having been of an unprecedented character. Mention is made of the coolness and bravery of the officers, crew, and passengers, especially of the boat’s crew that rescued the survivors. The Government have presented Captain Walker, of the barque Albert William, with a ship’s chronometer, and have suitably rewarded the boat’s crew that rescued the passengers of tho Dandenong.

It is stated that Mr Amos, tho contractor. has suffered to the extent of <£looo by tho destruction of trucks on the Southern Railway, by a late storm. Margaret Lewis, charged at Windsor, with having administered to a child three months old carbolic acid with intent to murder, has been committed for trial. In Queensland, Elizabeth Lancefield, charged with poisoning her husband, has been found not guilty, and a nolle prosequi was thereupon entered against B wney, charged as an accessory.